Four weeks ago we announced the winners of the international Bill Gates 'Reinvent the Toilet' challenge and I was delighted that these included a team from Loughborough University. Who said we never make anything in the UK anymore?

As those who know about my passion for looking after the environment and how strongly I feel about the need for decent public washrooms will understand, I'm even more delighted to learn in news just in, that the British Cleaning Council is indulging both these passions, by securing the team from Loughborough to deliver a keynote session at its conference next month (see more on the day's programme below).

The competition required entrants to "develop a toilet that is clean, safe, durable and affordable, without the need for connection to electricity or a sewer." The team's prototype converts human waste into carbonised material (which apparently looks and smells like coffee!) to provide heat, minerals for soil conditioning and water for flushing and hand-washing. It was praised for its affordability and sustainability and the design could potentially provide families in the developing world a source of sanitation and fuel for a few pence a day.